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Stepping (Long-Earth Multiverse)
=Stepper categorization= Stepper A Stepper is simply any person capable of traveling across worlds in a World-Chain. For the majority of humanity and a few other species encountered in the Long-Cosmos, a Stepper-Box is needed to be able to cross the World-Chains, except in the cases of people classified as Natural Steppers. The only known species aside from humanity to need a Stepper-Box are the Sand-Whalers from Mars-East 1,500,812 of West Gap. For humans, Stepping across worlds is accompanied by side-effect such as nausea and vomiting, but these problems can be mitigated by resting between Steps and nausea-combating drugs. These side-effects do not apply to about a fifth of the human population and most other sapient species encountered on the Long-Earth, who are classified as Natural Steppers, and can effortlessly Step across worlds at will. These problems have only been observed for Steppers among humanity. Only sentient beings are capable of Stepping, but animals can be carried physically or travel across worlds on a Twain. In order for a vehicle to be Step-capable, it must have an sentient machine-intelligence loaded onboard, such as Lobsang for the Mark Twain. Phobics, who comprise about a fifth of the human population and the entire Beagle species, are naturally incapable of traveling using Steppers-Boxes and must be carried by a Stepper or a Twain. Extreme Phobics can not travel across worlds using a Stepper-Box or even be carried across worlds because the side-effects of Stepping affect them to near-lethal levels. Natural Steppers A Natural Stepper is someone who can cross worlds by Stepping without the need for a Stepper-Box or other forms of Stepping technology. Additionally, among humans, this label can apply to anyone who can Step across the Long-Earth without being afflicted by side-effects such as Step-Nausea, but still require technological assistance in order to actually travel from one universe to another. Among humanity, about a fifth of the population are capable of Stepping without a Stepper-Box. Trolls, Elves, and Kobolds are capable of Natural Stepping as an entire species. Traversers are capable of learning to Step from assimilating Trolls or Elves and gaining the knowledge from their minds. Phobics Phobics are people who are unable to Step, even with the use of a Stepper-Box. In order to cross worlds, Phobics must be carried across with additional help, it can be a Natural Stepper, Stepper-Box users, or Twain travel-ships. Phobics are essentially the inverse of Natural Steppers, who are able to cross the Long-Earth without the use of Stepper technologies or side-effects like Stepping-Nausea. A rough estimation categorizes a fifth of the human population are Phobics, just like another fifth are estimated to be Natural Steppers. The Beagles are the only known example of a naturally Phobic species, being unable to cross worlds by Stepping as a whole, they need to be carried by a Stepper or ride in a Twain. Extreme Phobics Extreme Phobics are a much more severe subcategory of regular Phobics, meaning that not only can they not cross worlds with the use of a Stepper-Box, they also can not be carried across worlds by other people, without the risk of dying in the process. These fatal consequences can be negated by the immediate use of a specialized type of drug. =Types of Stepping= Stepping East/Stepping West Stepping is described as causing a sound like a "soap-bubble pop". Stepping North Stepping North refers to a previously unknown "direction" of Stepping, apart from the normal "directions" of Stepping to the East or West. It is only know to have been accessed from certain places on unique worlds, where the Stepper, instead of traveling across different versions of the same planet, finds themselves on a distant planet in a distant galaxy or solar-system in the same universe. Known examples of Stepping North: *The first known example of Stepping North was told to Joshua Valienté by Bill Chambers, about a comber who spent a night naked and alone on The Cueball for a bet. After waking up hungover, he attempted to start Stepping back home, but accidentally Stepped North, taking him to a far distant world where he could see the Milky Way Galaxy from the outside. *The second known example allowed Nikos Irwin to Step from the cellar near the Poulson house on New Springfield to a far-distant world he named the Planetarium, a planet in the Messier-15 globular-cluster over 33,000 light-years from the Terra of Earth-West 1,217,756. *Additionally, the strange silver-beetle creatures somehow have learned how to Step North from their homeworld in another galaxy until they managed to reach New Springfield on Earth-West 1,217,756 and attempted to start making incursions into the Long-Earth from there. Linsay Stepping Linsay Stepping Linsay Stepping has been noted to be harder on Steppers than normal Stepping is, though Natural Steppers are largely unaffected. Monica Jansson, a seasoned Stepper who has developed a strong tolerance against Step-Nausea, is left exhausted and bewildered after traveling through multiple Soft-Places. Notable examples of Linsay Stepping: *Sally Linsay has been traveling through the Soft-Places since she was a child and has a great talent for doing so. It allows her to freely and quickly travel up and down the Long-Earth whenever she goes off by herself. *Sally Linsay and Joshua Valienté towed the Mark Twain from a few worlds beyond the West Gap to Madison-West 5 through the Soft-Places because the ship was no longer capable of Stepping after Lobsang left the ship and merged with First-Person Singular. *In 2040, Sally Linsay and Monica Jansson traveled from Madison-West 5 to GapSpace through the use of Soft-Places, the journey took them from Wisconsin to the northwest of England near the Irish Sea without having to physically cross the distance and they crossed over 2 million worlds in a week, far faster than any Twain was capable of at the time. Soft-Places Soft-Places are locations where it is possible to rapidly travel across numerous planets in a World-Chain. Soft-Places are described as being a flaw in the quasi-linear pandimensional geometry of the Long-Earth, though they can also be found on other World-Chains like the Long-Mars. When traveling through a Soft-Place, the traveler is moves both geographically and stepwise, placing them in a different location on the same planet in a different reality. It is commonly said that the Soft-Places can take you wherever you want to go within 3-5 Steps. Travel by Soft-Place is more effort-intensive than regular Stepping, descriptions include a "sense of falling", like a plunge down a water slide, feelings of a "deep, sucking cold", like an endothermic chemical reaction, and feels like it takes longer than a regular step, even though a watch will not register the passage of any time. The use of Soft-Places is more draining than regular Stepping, even Natural Steppers, like Sally Linsay and Joshua Valienté, have described the process as grueling, energy-sapping, and sharper than a regular Step. When searching for Soft-Places, they tend to cluster in continental heartlands away from the coast and. can be found more easily at dawn or sunset. They are sometimes visible as "a kind of shimmer" hanging in the air. Sally Linsay is capable of scrying out the location of Soft-Places through the use of movements similar to Tai-Chi, locating Soft-Places is a natural talent of Sally's family. =Limitations of Stepping= There are a number of notable restrictions t Stepping obstructions Ferrous materials For reasons that are not quite known, pure iron, steel alloys, and other ferrous materials are unable to cross the dimensional barrier, severely limiting the ability to take technologies and other common items across the Long-Earths. If someone is carrying iron containing items when they Step, these things will simply be left behind where the person was previously and the non-ferrous parts of the items will be brought with them. Essentially, to have access to iron, iron ore would have to be mined and a forge would have to be set up on each individual world. Chemically altered forms of iron, such as organic hemoglobin and iron rust, are exceptions to this rule. This has been remedied to some extent through the use of non-ferrous alloys, such as bronze, or other materials, such as glass, for crafting weapons and tools taken on Step journeys. Electronic technologies have been developed specifically to function with other metals in place of iron to negate this limitation. Iron blades can be used to prevent Steppers from crossing, keeping them from crossing over and opening up large bleeding wounds where the blade was before. Likewise, implanting pieces of iron in somebody's body, specifically a staple in the heart, can prevent them Stepping, because they would bleed out whenever the metal piece would disappear and leave an open hole in their heart. Stepping-Nausea Stepping-Nausea, or Step-Nausea, is the primary side-effect for the majority of humans with Stepping across the Long-Earth. Depending on the severity of the effects, an average person might affected for simply minutes after a crossing, but more extreme sufferers can suffer from nausea and vomiting spells for extended periods. This affects essentially all of the human population, except for those who fit the category of Natural Steppers. Although, while Natural Stepper humans can rapidly travel the Long-Earth by riding on Twains without notable side-effects, rapid Stepping on a Twain can still affect the sleep of a Natural Stepper. Medications have been developed to allow for quick Stepping or travel in Twains without suffering from continual nausea from the crossing. A specialized form of these medicines have been developed to treat the near-fatal side-effects of Stepping suffered by an Extreme Phobic. Step-Nausea has not been observed in the Natural Stepper species, such as Trolls, Elves, and Kobolds. Stepper-Box usage and Phobic restrictions Roughly three-fifths of the human population, as well as the Sand-Whalers of Mars, require a Stepper-Box to be able to Step travel. Some human Natural Steppers are unable to travel without a Stepper-Box, even if it does not have a power-source, though this seems to be a mental block rather than an inability to Step unaided. About a fifth of the human population and the entire Beagle species are Phobics, meaning they unable to travel across worlds using Stepper-Boxes and must be carried either by Steppers or in a Twain ship. Extreme Phobics are a sub-population of human Phobics who suffer potentially lethal side-effects from being carried by a Stepper, unless they are treated immediately. =Stepping technologies= Stepping technologies are items used to aid people in crossing separating the worlds of the Long-Earth or other World-Chains. Additionally, medications have been developed to allow for greater ease of travel to those affected by Step-Nausea and specialized technologies, as well as other tools, have been crafted so that they can be brought to other worlds without the effects of the iron restriction. Stepper-Boxes A Stepper-Box is a device used to allowed travel across chains of parallel worlds, such as the Long-Earth and the Long-Mars, via Stepping. Stepper-Boxes can be readily built using low cost materials, mostly some wires, basic electronic components, and a simple switch, that are capable of crossing the dimensional veil and is powered by a natural power-supply, such as a potato for Stepper-Boxes on Terra and a Martian cactus for Stepper-Boxes on Mars. A Stepper-Box must be completed by its' user to allow for Stepping, such as twisting the box's last few wires together, though it is not required for the user to build to box entirely by themselves. Twains A Twain is a specialized travel-ship developed for rapid travel across the Long-Earth, they can allow even Phobics to cross worlds without issue, and are the fastest way to travel up and down the World-Chain without the use of Soft-Places. Twains are commonly used to import materials that are not largely available on the Datum-Earth, such as rare minerals and exotic plants, and to export goods that are not readily available to colonies across the Stepwise-Earths. Stepper-Shuttle Stepper-Shuttles Stepping-Plane Stepping-Planes Step-capable electronics Specialized electronic technologies have been developed to replace iron components with alternative metals to be capable of being Stepped across worlds without being damaged by the loss of their ferrous parts. Laptops and other computers with non-iron parts used by both governmental agencies and private corporations in their endeavors across the Stepwise-Earths. Twain ships contain non-ferrous electronics to allow for a machine-intelligence to be uploaded into its' onboard computers. The ambulatory and aquatic-capable units used by Lobsang for physical interactions have no ferrous components in their onboard electronics, just like the Twains themselves. Step-Nausea medications Step-Nausea medications were specifically developed to fight the side-effects of Stepping, allowing for easier treks across the Long-Earth or riding in Twains without hindrance. A stronger form of the drugs have been developed to prevent Extreme Phobics from dying if they are carried across worlds by a Stepper. Users of Step-Nausea medications have described feeling a "familiar jolt to the gut" when Stepping or riding in a Twain, though it is "faint" or a "ghost sensation",, rather than the normal disorientation or severe nausea caused by Step-Nausea. The Federated Republic of China issues Step-Nausea medications in the form of "nausea inoculation regimes" to travelers on their Twain ships, such as the crew of the Liu Yang and Xi Zheng on the East Twenty-Million Mission. Category:Long-Earth Multiverse